


When Memories Fade, Theirs Refuse To

by Sehin



Series: November 2020 One-Shots [26]
Category: Battlestar Galactica (2003), Battlestar Galactica - All Media Types
Genre: Battlestar Galactica - Ship, Canon Compliant, Easter Eggs, Forgetting Is Never A Good Thing, Late Season Four, Mentioned Dwight "Flat-Top" Sanders, Mentioned Kara Thrace, Mentioned Laura Roslin, Mentioned Lee Adama, Mentioned Minor Characters - Freeform, Mentioned Sharon "Boomer" Valerii, Mentioned William Adama, Not Beta Read, OCs in Main Universe, Other, Shameless Usage of OCs, Timeskip, early season two, lots of easter eggs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-26
Updated: 2020-11-26
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:28:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27723509
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sehin/pseuds/Sehin
Summary: On the run from the Cylons, the casualties mount and their names are being forgotten. But for two people, they refuse to allow them to be left behind and lost to history.*Two OCs deciding to remember everyone. Not an easy task. Mentioned Main Characters.
Relationships: Original Male Character & Original Male Character
Series: November 2020 One-Shots [26]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1994803
Kudos: 1





	When Memories Fade, Theirs Refuse To

Lieutenant junior grade Dwight "Flat-Top" Sanders was 26, a third-generation Caprican (his great-grandparents were from Picon), and had already served aboard the Battlestars _Argo_ and _Bellerophon_ before he was assigned to _Galactica_ six months before the attacks. His parents were James and Lucy and had a younger sister named Kristina, who was not yet eighteen. And while he was one of the best Raptor pilots in the Colonial Fleet, with nearly every ECO wanting to fly with him anytime, his only downside was his landings.

He fouled them up quite frequently, often leading many to believe he was ready to rival Boomer (but the young woman from Troy had been on the old battlestar nearly eighteen months more and her record was unlikely to ever be broken no matter what). The joke among his fellow pilots, both Viper and Raptor, was that he always wanted to get back to his rack and let one off (which was quite regularly as some of his bunk-mates could attest to, though according to some of them, he rarely gave off a sound when he did so). Nevertheless, he was easily jovial and cheery. His last ECO, Emmitt "Sweetness" Jones, certainly enjoyed his company, though never once took to his advances and failed attempts of flirting (her husband had been on Virgon when the Cylons hit).

The tragedy that struck _Galactica_ 's port hangar bay just fourteen days after the Cylons destroyed their home colonies ended Flat-Top's career. But it wasn't just him, twelve others had been killed and seven more ended up in sickbay, out for weeks if not months until they recovered.

No one likes to forget those who died or left behind but when you're on the run for your lives from merciless robots and the casualties mounted, eventually even they fade. Regularly forgotten except for a lucky photograph or file number, assuming they survived a journey to the memorial hallway set up in the aftermath of the attacks. Their friends and colleagues, even their surviving family members, would regularly visit and pray, but sometimes they would never come back to do it again. It was all a game of numbers.

But there was one on _Galactica_ who remembered them, gifted with a decent memory and a little brother with a habit for making lists when he wasn't doing his homework.

* - * - * - *

It had started about three months after fleeing the destroyed colonies, shortly after the launch of the Blackbird stealth fighter _Laura_ , and Lieutenant junior grade Rowan "Shadow" Tayou was in the pilots' briefing room late one evening when his 15-year-old brother Corey entered. Rowan, a 23-year-old Viper pilot from Tauron though lived eight years of his life on Caprica, was staring at the names on the board. It had recently been updated to add some of the newer pilots who had made the lead board, including Louanne "Kat" Katraine, Brendan "Hot Dog" Costanza and Tucker "Duck" Clellan. But for the moment, he was still seeing the missing names, those who hadn't made it. Corey, who knew his brother well enough, sat beside him.

"Who were they?" the teenager asked.

"Some of them were friends," Rowan replied. "Others were just people we picked up following the attacks, so I only knew them a few days before it happened."

"You're referring to what happened to Flat-Top, aren't you?" Corey sighed. "First time I saw a burnt body. Gruesome."

Rowan had been trailing Apollo, Starbuck and the Commander to the flight deck, listening to stories about their thousandth landings and was about to tell him about his only a few weeks before the attacks when an explosion rocked the port flight pod corridors and screams could be heard from the hangar deck. He was later racing towards sickbay with one of the pilots when he saw his brother coming out of the rec room with a guard escort back to the pilot quarters. Corey's face went stone white and Rowan had to shout for the petty officer to take his brother back to his rack immediately. That night, he comforted his brother, his only family and then decided to send him to the _Bright Orchid_ to live with the Collins family though Corey ended up spending just as much time on _Galactica_ afterwards.

"You still bothered by it?" Rowan asked the teenager.

Corey shook his head. "To be honest, after seeing the guts they pulled out of Starbuck's raider and then getting caught up in the Cylon boarding action, I just feel numb now when it comes to dead bodies," he looked at his brother. "Does that mean I'm broken?"

"Do you still cry, little brother?"

The teenager nodded. "Yeah."

"Then you are still human," Rowan stood up and moved to the wall. "It's all we've got left. And there will always be more bodies."

"Do you still remember who we lost?" Corey asked, remaining seated.

"Dwight "Flat-Top" Sanders, 26, Caprican," the older man started. "Evan "Greenback" Santos, 27, Aerian, Nancy "Gem" Wakeland, 25, Pican, Aron "Keyhole" Brune, 27, Leonin, James "Rebel" McIntyre, 24, Caprican, Tobias "Monk" Holton, 28, Caprican."

"And the others?"

"I only remember their callsigns: "Bunker", "Tags", "Hutch", "Redball", "Chopper", "Gallop", and "Hotshot"," Rowan sighed. "Three of them were from the _Solaria_ under Dad, two of them from the _Poseidon_ and the others were from the _Rhea_ , _Selene_ and _Rycon_. That's all I remember of them. We didn't get much of a chance to talk."

"Only fly?"

"Yeah," Rowan nodded. "Only fly."

Corey stood up and looked at the board. "Maybe we should change that. I'm sure Fleet Ops had their files in fleet records. The Admin Office should have paper copies right?"

The pilot turned around. "Yeah, why?"

"You remember them, unlike Starbuck and Apollo, who are mentioning they're starting to forget who we've lost since the attacks," Corey turned his eyes to the photos on the wall. "When we reach Earth, who will remember Dwight "Flat-Top" Sanders, Steven "Flyboy" Irvine, Alex "Crashdown" Quartararo or Donald "Chuckles" Perry?"

"And who would remember who served with them?" Rowan smiled. "Think we have the spare time for it?"

"You're only Starbuck's third, aren't you?" Corey asked. "You only have to worry about being a flight leader and helping Kat and Hot Dog train as a flight leader in their own right."

Rowan chuckled. "Sure, I've got so little paperwork. Shouldn't be too difficult. If Lee agrees."

"Doesn't hurt to ask, big brother," the teenager smirked. "And if I don't make the early flight training exam when I turn sixteen, I could always be a military archivist."

"Eager to reach the cockpit, little brother?" Rowan smiled. "Just cause the minimum age is sixteen to join the military doesn't mean Commander Adama's going to enforce it."

"You're just worried I'll outfly you." Corey winked. "But you know my dream, so did Dad."

"And we didn't influence you in any way, right?"

"Rather an officer than a politician like Mum." Corey grunted. "Though President Roslin makes it look interesting."

"Yeah, she does," Rowan was planning to vote for her in the elections, if she survived long enough to get in or by some miracle gets a cure for her cancer. "Well then, little brother, let's get this project of ours underway."

Both brothers walked out and headed out to find Lee and Kara to get clearance for their project, though hoped to also see the Commander for it. Luckily, Adama knew the brothers well, having served with their father for many years, so approval would be easier than they thought.

* - * - * - *

_Four years later..._

Ensign Corey "Sunhawk" Tayou was packing his gear into a box for transfer, he looked across at the black binder in front of him. Pausing in his activity, the 18-year-old Viper pilot grabbed the folder and opened it. On the first page, he couldn't help but smile.

"Hey, little brother," Rowan's voice pulled him to look up. "I hope you don't plan to leave that behind."

"After all the effort we went into to put it together," the younger pilot replied. "Why the hell would I leave it behind?"

The 27-year-old squad leader chuckled and sat down next to his brother, looking at the page as Corey began quickly going through it. "We did good work, Corey, didn't we?"

Corey nodded. "Yeah, we did," he looked up to see Hot Dog and Dragon finishing their packing. Showboat and Catbird were dealing their stuff, with the former pausing when a photo of her husband and son fell out of her folders. She fell back down to the table and her friend and colleague sat beside her and gave a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "And we've added more since then."

Rowan sighed. "Anastasia Dualla, Howard Kim, Erin Mathias, Omar Fischer, Louanne "Kat" Katraine, Eammon "Gonzo" Pike, Josh "Sandman" Handell, Richard "Buster" Bayer, Arthur "Joker" Simes..." he paused. "Kara Thrace?"

"We never removed her, did we?" Corey nodded. "Should we take it out?"

"No," Rowan replied, shaking his head. "Not for a while anyway."

Corey closed the folder and placed it in his box, he stood up and pulled the photos he'd gotten over the past three years along with the framed one of him, his brother and their father. "Seems sad about the Old Girl," he spoke, referring to _Galactica_. "After everything we've been through with her."

Rowan nodded. "I know, little brother," he too stood up and grabbed his belongings. "But we will never forget her."

Corey paused again and his hazel eyes turned to his brother. "Add her to the book?"

The older man nodded. "Absolutely," he replied. "She deserves a page or two."

"She'll need more than two pages."

"Yeah, she does."

With that, the brothers returned to their task. Around them the others did the same. They had all made it this far, even after thousands of people died to reach this point, the end of _Galactica_ , the end of finding Earth, but not the end of finding a new home. For Lieutenant Rowan "Shadow" Tayou and Ensign Corey "Sunhawk" Tayou, there was no ending.

There was a beginning.

**Author's Note:**

> The Reimagined Battlestar Galactica first graced my screens in early 2005, as living in Australia put me behind somewhat. But having remembered briefly the original series, mostly for the ships and battles than the characters, it's what drew me to this. I was fifteen and I didn't care. I ended up developing my own ideas for the series. Including a character for myself to insert into the background like they were always there.
> 
> Rowan "Shadow" Tayou and Corey "Sunhawk" Tayou are the ultimate last ones I created. Both are brothers. Their father commanded the Battlestar Solaria when it was lost in the Cylon attacks. Their mother was a politician who served as Secretary of Home Affairs and Laura Roslin's colleague (they didn't get on). I chose these two for the project to ultimately find and remember all those who were lost in the days since the attacks because it didn't fit with any of the main characters. Ultimately, I feel I've accomplished it.
> 
> Ultimately, while I feel BSG (2003) failed to live it up in its last season, which I didn't particularly like except for the opening battle of the season (the Intersun Luxury Liner (Ring Ship) Zephyr being hit and the passenger liner Pyxis being destroyed are just images I'll never forget) being about the only thing I enjoyed about it, I have loved Galactica and her crew and am grateful we got to experience such a grand series. Heck, I have a signed autograph from Michael Hogan who portrayed Colonel Saul Tigh and even got a handshake from him when he came to a convention in Australia a few years back (yes I have washed my hand since then because I'm not that bad a fan that I haven't washed the hand for over five years but it's always an honour to shake the hand of any actor you meet).
> 
> Also, lots of easter eggs from the series. Though so many were never named, so I just named them myself. Go hunt on Battlestar Wiki for the official ones :).
> 
> Anyway, review and kudos :) If you wanna learn more about Rowan and Corey too, because I went so hard in making sure they fitted into the background as if they were always on the show, don't hesitate to ask.


End file.
